Newbie question: getting into colour developing
Mike Ellwood
have not done anything like that recently.
Given technical advances since then, I am wondering how
difficult it would be to get into colour film developing
these days? Just for fun, nothing too serious.
I am not bothered about colour photographic printing as
I would be scanning the negatives after developing.
My memory of the B&W days is that one did not need a particularly
elaborate "darkroom"; just a means of loading the developing
tank in darkness, a sink, thermometer, and plenty of water.
And the developer, etc...
What is the bare minimum nowadays?
Only interested in 35 mm, print film.
--
Mike.E...@rl.ac.uk
William Wright
developing -- you can't affect the end product very much by doing it
yourself. There's little opportunity for 'artistic decisions' or
'creative effort' when you develop color, except if you want to do
something really wild like cross-processing. It's just manual labor.
Probably you remember that you can control the contrast in B&W by using
different development times in order to match the exposure decisions
that you made when taking the shot (i.e. -- the Zone System). If you
don't like the first result, you can bleach or intensify the negative
afterwards. Etc. These things don't work with color film.
As for the equipment, you do need a better and more expensive lab.
Color requires you to hold the temperatures accurate over a longer
period of time, there is an 'extra' step in the process, and the
chemicals cost more.
So why go through all thi9s merely in order to get the same results as a
lab will do for $4/roll?
_Printing_ in color is a completely different story. That's where 'art'
and 'creativity' and 'judgment' enter the picture. (no pun intended --
honest)
Cheers!
Bill
Chewie Logan
Holy Crap
Mikey <kno...@gofindit.yourself> wrote in message
news:87ml2u$ec1$1...@info.bta.net.cn...
| Good that you asked such a specific and easily answered question here
| because NOWHERE on the internet can you find ANY information about this
| yourself. The web truly sucks these days with so few resources out there
to
| get ANYTHING answered yourself. Thank GOD these newsgroups are here.
We're
| all just WAITING for people like you to post broad questions so we can
| quickly answer them.
|
| Try a little basic research yourself first before asking others to waste
| their time on you. Your question reeks of the fact the little was done
| yourself on this.
|
| May I suggest www.yahoo.com or www.google.com or www.deja.com ? (Just for
| starters)
|
| Let me lend a little help: search under....hmmm....let's see,
| maybe....color developing?
|
| Careful. You might learn something.
|
|
|
|
Lee Kanner
<amo...@digistar.mb.ca> wrote:
Color developing is no big deal. Get kit from Jobo (Tetenal) or Beseler.
I prefer Tetenal for ease of mixing.
Use stainless steel tank that can be immersed in water bath. If you don't
know how to load a steel reel, you better learn. Buy the best quality
reels; the bargain ones are made inaccurately and can be a bitch to load.
The chemicals and tank want to be immersed in a water bath that is at
approx 104 F. People buy expensive thermostatically controlled heaters.
I found that by a little trial and error process, I could succeed with a
much cheaper substitute. I bought a one-cup immersion heater, the kind of
thing people buy to make a cup of instant coffee at the office. I also
bought a dimmer switch, the gadget that has a round knob that you turn to
brighten or dim the room lights. I wired the dimmer switch in series with
the immersion heater. Since the heater will go into a water bath, make
your wires long enough so that the soldered (and taped, I hope) joints are
nowhere near the water batch--you don't want to risk electrocution. The
trial and error is finding the setting for the dimmer that will keep the
water at the required temperature at least for the fifteen minutes of
development time.
Don't expect the dimmer switch to bring the water up to temperature. You
set the initial temperature yourself by mixing hot and cold water
appropriately. Oh, and I bring cold solutions up to temperature by
putting the bottles in a pan of really hot water while watching a
thermometer that is sitting in one of the bottles.
Well, this info should get you started.
Herb
--
Herb and/or Lee Kanner
For e-mail reply, replace "acmd" by "acm"
David Harrison
topic question. If you can't be bothered to help the guy why not just keep
quiet?
DGH
Mikey wrote in message <87ml2u$ec1$1...@info.bta.net.cn>...
>Good that you asked such a specific and easily answered question here
>because NOWHERE on the internet can you find ANY information about this
>yourself. The web truly sucks these days with so few resources out there
to
>get ANYTHING answered yourself. Thank GOD these newsgroups are here.
We're
>all just WAITING for people like you to post broad questions so we can
>quickly answer them.
>
>Try a little basic research yourself first before asking others to waste
>their time on you. Your question reeks of the fact the little was done
>yourself on this.
>
>May I suggest www.yahoo.com or www.google.com or www.deja.com ? (Just for
>starters)
>
>Let me lend a little help: search under....hmmm....let's see,
>maybe....color developing?
>
>Careful. You might learn something.
>
>
>"Mike Ellwood" <m...@unixfe.cc.rl.ac.uk> wrote in message
>news:87mhbo$t...@newton.cc.rl.ac.uk...
Kurt Krueger
consensus
was pretty much to send the negatives to a lab and concentrate on print
making. The last time I requested developing only of negatives the
charge
was $1.50. So even though I COULD develop my own, I don't consider
it worth the effort.
KB
> >>
> >> Given technical advances since then, I am wondering how
> >> difficult it would be to get into colour film developing
> >> these days? Just for fun, nothing too serious.
> >>
> >> I am not bothered about colour photographic printing as
> >> I would be scanning the negatives after developing.
> >>
> >> My memory of the B&W days is that one did not need a particularly
> >> elaborate "darkroom"; just a means of loading the developing
> >> tank in darkness, a sink, thermometer, and plenty of water.
> >> And the developer, etc...
> >>
> >> What is the bare minimum nowadays?
Hi, Mike--
Color negative film can be easily developed in a home darkroom. You need
the usual kit -- tank, reels, etc. -- plus some way of keeping the
temperature at an even 100 degrees F. There are several different
two-bath chemistry kits out there; I've used the Unicolor, but I don't
know what's available in the UK.
As for temp control, you need a water bath and a heater. These may be a
bit difficult, and please remember that you are putting an electric
heater into a tank of water and then sticking your hand in there. It
could be a shocking experience, so make sure you get the right stuff ;-)
Now, let me ask you why you want to do this? It is likely to be more
expensive than the local color lab, and less consistent. Modern
automated color processors do a pretty good job, and are usually pretty
inexpensive. We pay around US$2.50 - 3.00 a roll for process only (no
prints), and then we print or scan the images we want.
Cheers, and kindly ignore the flamers out there.
Ken
Mike Ellwood
: Color negative film can be easily developed in a home darkroom. You need
: the usual kit -- tank, reels, etc. -- plus some way of keeping the
: temperature at an even 100 degrees F. There are several different
: two-bath chemistry kits out there; I've used the Unicolor, but I don't
: know what's available in the UK.
: As for temp control, you need a water bath and a heater. These may be a
: bit difficult, and please remember that you are putting an electric
: heater into a tank of water and then sticking your hand in there. It
: could be a shocking experience, so make sure you get the right stuff ;-)
: Now, let me ask you why you want to do this? It is likely to be more
: expensive than the local color lab, and less consistent. Modern
: automated color processors do a pretty good job, and are usually pretty
: inexpensive. We pay around US$2.50 - 3.00 a roll for process only (no
: prints), and then we print or scan the images we want.
: Cheers, and kindly ignore the flamers out there.
Thanks Ken, and also David and Kurt, and also to Bill Wright (e-mail)
for your helpful advice and comments.
I think my basic requirment was partly immediacy, and partly not
wanting to pay for prints I didn't need. In my locality of the UK
at least, develop-only (for a significant reduction in cost
over D&P) does not seem to be readily available. Possibly via mail-order,
but then I have the delay, and risk of losing film or negs.
(As I have noted to Bill, we don't seem to have as much consumer-power
over here as you do there, to encourage costs down! You will hear complaints
about relatively high-cost of consumer goods/services here, in a whole range of
items, not just photographic).
But perhaps I will look a bit harder for a develop-only lab, and
also perhaps investigate one of Bill's suggestions, which was to
look for a photographic club, where overhead costs are shared
(and also one can learn from others).
--
Mike.E...@rl.ac.uk